Outward Appearance, Inward Perceptions: Preservation of Identity among K’ichee’ Women offers a look into the changing patterns of identity and regional Maya clothing among the female members of a rural K’ichee’ Maya municipality located in the Western Highlands of Guatemala. It provides a brief framework of the history and importance of Maya clothing in Guatemala as well as in the context of the rural Maya community. Building upon a loose theoretical framework based on works by Irma Otzoy (1992, 1996a, 1996b), Clifford Geertz (1997), and Paul Connerton (1989), the current study was aimed at examining the connections that exist between one municipality’s female regional style of clothing and the redefining of sacred spaces for cultural and identity preservation and an analysis of historical memory related to material culture. This descriptive study was conducted among a sample of K’ichee’ Maya women (N=18) over a two month period in 2010. Qualitative data were collected using an open-ended semi-structured interview guide. Major themes that emerged from the data were the vital roles that female community members play in the preservation of local culture and the changing and adaptive nature of material culture. The findings suggest that local identities and culture change alongside the changes occurring in municipal traje use, and pride and respect for local origins is preserved through performative ritual / text
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UTEXAS/oai:repositories.lib.utexas.edu:2152/ETD-UT-2011-08-4016 |
| Date | 05 October 2011 |
| Creators | Wallace, Joseph Brandt |
| Source Sets | University of Texas |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | thesis |
| Format | application/pdf |
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